Meet Kyra Ehle | Illustrator & Concept Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kyra Ehle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kyra, why did you pursue a creative career?
There wasn’t a choice—simply no other way for me to live a fulfilling life if not through art. Like a computer, downloading and processing information in numbers and codes. For me, those zeros and ones are colors, light, movement, patterns; The world is a canvas.

We experience art every day, whether we try to or not. It’s inevitable. It’s not just a sculpture in a museum. It can be the way the sun is hitting your mother’s hair, or laughter filling a room. It can be a peculiar rock on the ground or a Times Square billboard. Art is what defines us as human.

Since I was a little kid, like many other little kids, my life was filled with magic. Fairy houses, forest spirits, potion making in the mud—this magic never left me. It sneaks its way into my work no matter how hard I try to just “make something normal” for once. My spirituality lives through my art, and I want it to be shared with the world.

This is how I express who I am. Not the elevator pitch for an employer or answering the rapid fire questions at family dinner. My creations speak for themselves. Soul magic.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
This all really started when I began to develop a distaste for commercial products. I would think, “this cup is so boring” or “why didn’t they make it this way instead”. So, I started to DIY everything. Plant pots, phone cases, clothes—anything I could get my hands on. I was cultivating my creative visions using whatever means I could.

I have gone through many artistic stages, (even a blue period, shoutout Picasso) but for the past year I’ve had an obsession with ancient art. African, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Aztec, Mayan, Celtic- the stone carvings resonate with me. The Legend of Zelda has also been one of the most impactful franchises in my life, thanks to watching my dad play as a little girl. My work mixes ancient art with an otherworldly sense of magic. I create symbols and runes charged with energy, and I hide them in everything. Or in some cases, plain sight. Sometimes I plan them out, sometimes I don’t. That’s the fun part.

Getting to where I am today was a journey to say the least. I attended SCAD, got through a global pandemic, made friends and lost people along the way and now I have a B.F.A. Life is crazy. I wouldn’t be here without the amazing artists and professors I was surrounded with, who reminded me to keep going even when the light seemed to be fading.

I was on the phone with my mother not too long ago, overwhelmed with everything on my plate. She said, “You’re not dead until you’re dead.” We laughed, but she couldn’t be more right. You are not hopeless until you lie down in your grave and give in. There will always be somewhere to turn if you ever feel lost. My earlier years in school, especially during covid, I experienced total burnout. I couldn’t look at a blank piece of paper, could barely even get out of bed. But in those dark times I found my true friends, true mentors, and my true self. I learned to nurture both my brain and my body, and let me tell you. The complete 180 my art took was insane. I started to create from the heart, not my head. And when you’re doing something you’ve longed to do your whole life, the darkness falls away.

So to any artists and creatives reading this, burnout is not the end. You just need to strike a new match.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
KOREAN FOOD. Outside Atlanta lies Duluth, the best place for anything Korean. Being away from home has made me realize how much I took it for granted. I recommend the Rose Tteokbokki from Thank U Chicken. If you’re looking for your new favorite burger place, Grindhouse Killer Burgers are the best in the city.

Great metaphysical/spiritual shops are so hard to come by, so don’t waste your time and just go to Phoenix & Dragon. There are cats. Enough said.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
No one deserves a shoutout more than my mother and father. They knew the minute I picked up a crayon that this is who I was going to be for the rest of my life. Not too many parents are thrilled when their kid says “I wanna be an artist!”, but I got extremely lucky and I am grateful for their sacrifices every day of my life.

So hey, mom and dad. You guys are pretty cool. Thanks for everything.

Website: kyraehle.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kyraehle_official/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyraehle/

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kyra_ehle